Signatures are being gathered for a petition to protect countryside areas from the threat of development.

It comes amid anger in parts of Effingham about a process which could see development allowed at sites currently classed as green belt land.

A review of green belt areas is being carried out in response to pressure on local authorities to find land to meet demand for new homes, and a key council document has previously accepted such countryside may need to be built on.

Bookham Vanguard Forum is also involved in the process. It is drawing up a Neighbourhood Development Plan (NDP) to help find land suitable for development.

But its review has been challenged by Effingham Parish Council, whose members are angry that the Bookham forum is making decisions on sites they see as closer to a neighbouring village.

People in the Woodlands Road area of Bookham are also worried about development between the villages, with Ray Pritchard, a resident of the road, calling on the green belt land to be saved because “sometimes you don’t know how important things are until they’re gone”.

He encouraged people to sign the petition. It was launched under the name Hands off the Green Belt - Bookham and Effingham Together – and calls for the stance of the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) to be supported. Jane Buckingham, one of the petition organisers, said: “We, like CPRE, believe the countryside is our greatest treasure and that it is facing its greatest threat for 60 years.

“We created the local Surrey petitions to challenge our elected representatives on the decisions they are taking in the National Planning Policy Framework.

“Once the green belt is gone, it’s gone. We believe the risk extends far wider than our two villages and that now is the time to speak up to protect Surrey’s green belt for future generations.”

The petition has been distributed in shops and businesses in the villages and it will go to Guildford Borough Council too, since Effingham lies outside the border of Mole Valley.

Green belt areas in the neighbouring borough have also been identified as having development potential.

Views expressed by residents and groups in the review will play a key part in the identification of suitable sites for development, it has been promised.

During the public consultation stage earlier this year, 145 responses were received by the council, and there will be other chances for people to have their say before any plan which might pave the way for the development of certain sites, is adopted.

Cllr John Northcott, Mole Valley’s portfolio holder for planning, said he was aware of the views being expressed by some people in Bookham and Effingham, but said the council had been committed to reviewing the current green belt areas since agreeing this in its Core Strategy in 2009.

“The council must balance its need to provide the required levels of housing and other development while safeguarding the green belt,” he said. “I consider widespread consultation as being a crucial part of the process.”